Profile: David Cullinane (SF)

A Senator in the last Oireachtas Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane will have the distinction of becoming a new TD on the same day that his wife Kathleen Funchion will also swell the ranks of the party’s Oireachtas team after her election success in Carlow-Kilkenny. Persistence has certainly paid for the 41-year-old who previously contested the 2002, 2007 and 2011 general elections. One of just three Sinn Féin members in the Seanad he has been a frequent, informed and often abrasive contributor across a wide range of areas, with a keen attention to the nuances of legislation.